國立虎尾科技大學 |

Science as Charisma : = Expert Authority and State-Society Relations in Contemporary China.

Record Type:	Language materials, manuscript : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Science as Charisma :/
Reminder of title:	Expert Authority and State-Society Relations in Contemporary China.
Author:	Freedman, Joshua Brent.
Description:	1 online resource (316 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-12, Section: B.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International85-12B.
Subject:	Political science. -
Online resource:	click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9798382777948

Science as Charisma : = Expert Authority and State-Society Relations in Contemporary China.
Freedman, Joshua Brent.

Science as Charisma :Expert Authority and State-Society Relations in Contemporary China. - 1 online resource (316 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-12, Section: B.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard University, 2024.

Includes bibliographical references

We live in an expert society: citizens and leaders alike depend on scientists and experts to judge, interpret, and frame questions of public importance. Yet we have not fully grappled with how the expanded authority of scientists and experts affects the political authority that underlies the relationship between the state and its citizens. Experts rarely have the formal power to directly make political decisions, but their public authority has expanded to such a degree that they influence politics in myriad ways. In moments of crisis-such as during the COVID-19 pandemic whose after-effects are still impacting global politics-the authority of scientists and experts can even seem to exceed that of political leaders. Understanding the sources and nature of the authority that scientists and experts exercise in society is essential for making sense of contemporary politics.This dissertation addresses questions of scientific authority in politics by reframing classic social theories of science and applying them to a novel set of empirical investigations of China. While most theoretical discussions assume the authority of science is rooted in the impersonal procedures, norms, and institutions associated with Weberian legal-rational bureaucracy, I instead argue that science can be highly charismatic. I use the lens of scientific charisma to analyze how citizens, experts, and the state interact in China. Through a mixed-methods social scientific investigation of public health crises, propaganda campaigns about scientists, and public attitudes toward scientific authority, I detail Party-state efforts to simultaneously promote and limit the potential charisma of scientists in society. I show how the Party increasingly casts contemporary scientists in roles similar to those of Party cadres, which I connect to a longstanding quest to merge political loyalty and technical knowledge-to combine "red" and "expert" in the Party lexicon. To the extent that such a merger is plausible, I argue, it rests on the areas of overlap between scientific charisma and the charismatic core of the Party's political authority. Taken as a whole, the dissertation contributes both an alternative theoretical approach to thinking about the authority of expertise in contemporary mass politics and new empirical analyses of state-society relations and political authority in China.Chapter 1 lays out a vision for understanding the politics of expertise as a series of overlapping authority relationships between states, scientists, and citizens. Chapter 2 reinterprets the political and sociological theories of Max Weber to identify the possibility of a latent charisma within scientific authority. Chapter 3 applies the concept of scientific charisma to contemporary China through a study of Dr. Zhong Nanshan during the 2003 SARS and 2020 COVID-19 pandemics, highlighting the rise and fall of his heroic public image. Chapter 4 explores the Party's vision of the ideal Chinese scientist through an analysis of the ongoing "Spirit of Scientists" campaign. Chapter 5 introduces and analyzes a survey experiment to test how the authority of experts-and of claims to science more generally-affect compliance with public health measures among citizens. Chapter 6 extends the scope of the project beyond mainland China through a case study of the politics of scientific advising during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. It shows how different views of science, rather than partisanship, drove internal cleavages around policy choices. It also adds to the themes analyzed in the preceding chapters by highlighting the unique role of the media and social media in connecting citizens, experts, and the state. Chapter 7 concludes by outlining the study's overall contributions and potential avenues for future research.

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2024

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9798382777948Subjects--Topical Terms:

558774
Political science.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Political leadersIndex Terms--Genre/Form:

554714
Electronic books.

Science as Charisma : = Expert Authority and State-Society Relations in Contemporary China.
LDR:05185ntm a22003977 4500 001 1149888
005 20241022110542.5
006 m o d
007 cr bn ---uuuuu
008 250605s2024 xx obm 000 0 eng d
020 $a 9798382777948
035 $a (MiAaPQ)AAI31297037
035 $a AAI31297037
040 $a MiAaPQ $b eng $c MiAaPQ $d NTU
100 1 $a Freedman, Joshua Brent. $3 1476261
245 1 0 $a Science as Charisma : $b Expert Authority and State-Society Relations in Contemporary China.
264 0 $c 2024
300 $a 1 online resource (316 pages)
336 $a text $b txt $2 rdacontent
337 $a computer $b c $2 rdamedia
338 $a online resource $b cr $2 rdacarrier
500 $a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-12, Section: B.
500 $a Advisor: Perry, Elizabeth J.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard University, 2024.
504 $a Includes bibliographical references
520 $a We live in an expert society: citizens and leaders alike depend on scientists and experts to judge, interpret, and frame questions of public importance. Yet we have not fully grappled with how the expanded authority of scientists and experts affects the political authority that underlies the relationship between the state and its citizens. Experts rarely have the formal power to directly make political decisions, but their public authority has expanded to such a degree that they influence politics in myriad ways. In moments of crisis-such as during the COVID-19 pandemic whose after-effects are still impacting global politics-the authority of scientists and experts can even seem to exceed that of political leaders. Understanding the sources and nature of the authority that scientists and experts exercise in society is essential for making sense of contemporary politics.This dissertation addresses questions of scientific authority in politics by reframing classic social theories of science and applying them to a novel set of empirical investigations of China. While most theoretical discussions assume the authority of science is rooted in the impersonal procedures, norms, and institutions associated with Weberian legal-rational bureaucracy, I instead argue that science can be highly charismatic. I use the lens of scientific charisma to analyze how citizens, experts, and the state interact in China. Through a mixed-methods social scientific investigation of public health crises, propaganda campaigns about scientists, and public attitudes toward scientific authority, I detail Party-state efforts to simultaneously promote and limit the potential charisma of scientists in society. I show how the Party increasingly casts contemporary scientists in roles similar to those of Party cadres, which I connect to a longstanding quest to merge political loyalty and technical knowledge-to combine "red" and "expert" in the Party lexicon. To the extent that such a merger is plausible, I argue, it rests on the areas of overlap between scientific charisma and the charismatic core of the Party's political authority. Taken as a whole, the dissertation contributes both an alternative theoretical approach to thinking about the authority of expertise in contemporary mass politics and new empirical analyses of state-society relations and political authority in China.Chapter 1 lays out a vision for understanding the politics of expertise as a series of overlapping authority relationships between states, scientists, and citizens. Chapter 2 reinterprets the political and sociological theories of Max Weber to identify the possibility of a latent charisma within scientific authority. Chapter 3 applies the concept of scientific charisma to contemporary China through a study of Dr. Zhong Nanshan during the 2003 SARS and 2020 COVID-19 pandemics, highlighting the rise and fall of his heroic public image. Chapter 4 explores the Party's vision of the ideal Chinese scientist through an analysis of the ongoing "Spirit of Scientists" campaign. Chapter 5 introduces and analyzes a survey experiment to test how the authority of experts-and of claims to science more generally-affect compliance with public health measures among citizens. Chapter 6 extends the scope of the project beyond mainland China through a case study of the politics of scientific advising during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. It shows how different views of science, rather than partisanship, drove internal cleavages around policy choices. It also adds to the themes analyzed in the preceding chapters by highlighting the unique role of the media and social media in connecting citizens, experts, and the state. Chapter 7 concludes by outlining the study's overall contributions and potential avenues for future research.
533 $a Electronic reproduction. $b Ann Arbor, Mich. : $c ProQuest, $d 2024
538 $a Mode of access: World Wide Web
650 4 $a Political science. $3 558774
650 4 $a Asian studies. $3 1179577
650 4 $a Sociology. $3 551705
650 4 $a Public health. $3 560998
653 $a Political leaders
653 $a Contemporary politics
653 $a Social theories
653 $a Politics
655 7 $a Electronic books. $2 local $3 554714
690 $a 0615
690 $a 0342
690 $a 0626
690 $a 0573
710 2 $a ProQuest Information and Learning Co. $3 1178819
710 2 $a Harvard University. $b Government. $3 1195292
773 0 $t Dissertations Abstracts International $g 85-12B.
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=31297037 $z click for full text (PQDT)